It's a rough
life for a Masters of the Universe
Classics collector. For 29 days, 23 hours, and 55 minutes each month,
they appear calm, cool, and completely normal. They go about their
daily business with a song in their heart and a smile on their lips.
Then for five minutes on the 15th day of each month, they lose their
minds, screaming at their computer screens "DAMN THE RED SCREEN! I
CAN'T GET TO THE SHOPPING CART! MY CARD ISN'T WORKING! CRAPPY DIGITAL
RIVER! MATTEL SUUUUUUCKS!" Lather, rinse, repeat.

So what's a
MOTUC collector to do between these periods of schizophrenic
behavior? That's where Spy Monkey
Creations
come in, the brain child of
long time collector Jeremy Sung who is a big MOTU fan as well.
He's been producing unique accessories for your 6 - 7" fantasy action
figures, just llike MOTUC.

I'm looking at two swords - The Blade of the Demon King in Blue Venom
color (the one that looks like a bat wing), and the Master Blade of the
Empyrean in the 200X colors. Both of these swords come in other colors
as well, and they run $10 each.

I'm also checking out 5 of their shields. Three are Shields of
Destruction: The Eye of Doom (with the cool red eye in the center); The
Doppleganger version (with the molten red looking jewel in the center);
and the Blue Venom version (with the faceted blue stone) which goes
nicely with the Blue Venom sword. The other two are Shields of
Deliverance: the Golden Royal version has the rounded purple stone,
while the Weapons Master version has the rounded green stone. As
usually, the good guy doesn't get as cool of goodies as the bad
guy...the shields cost $10 each as well.

You can pick all of these up through Spy Monkey
Creations web store, and find out more about them and their
other products at their web page.
They have a ton of other goodies like axes and energy beams, with more
cool stuff to come!

Packaging - **
Mine arrived in a small shipping box, safe and snug in bubble wrap.
Hey, you're not buying the box anyway, are you?

Sculpting - ****
When I hear about custom accessories like
these, I always assume they'll be a bit rough. While customizers can do
some amazing work, since they don't have to deal with the softening
effects of mass production, they also tend to create sculpts that are a
bit rough around the edges, shall we say.

I was pleasantly
surprised to see that's NOT the case here. In fact, these are some
amazing sculpts, with not just great small detail work, but the kind of
straight, even edges that you normally only see coming out of expensive
steel molds.

For example, check out the
raised highlights on the
blade of the 200X sword. Even the rounded, flowing edges on the batwing
type design of the Demon King blade are clean, smooth and most of all -
precise.

The clear materials that have
been used add quite a bit
of punch to the appearance too, and the fine detail work on both hilts
is impressive, especially in this scale. These two weapons are as good
as the very best accessories that Mattel has given us in the MOTUC
line, and blow away anything else.

They're pretty big too, both
coming in at about 5" overall. The figures can hold them easily though,
and they aren't too heavy for them to maintain in just about any pose.

The
shields are nice as well, although not quite as detailed. The outer rim
is the same sculpt across all five, and in back is a heavy duty handle
for the figure to latch on to. On the front, there are alternating
smaller/larger 'nubs', and a raised edging.

In the center is a
crystal that varies from shield to shield. My personal favorite is the
evil red eye on the Eye of Doom version, but all of them look great and
are made from a very high quality material.

Paint - Swords ****; Shields
***1/2
There's not a ton of paint work on the swords, but what's here is great.

The
200X version has some shimmery flecks embedded in the blue plastic, a
nice touch that adds some pizazz to the already bright translucent
plastic. The Demon King blade has some of the sculpted hilt details
highlighted in a lighter color, done with a very, very steady hand.

The
shields score slightly lower here, largely because the main color of
each is done with some inconsistency. I think that's actually done on
purpose, to give the exterior a metallic, worn, beaten appearance. In
person it doesn't quite work for me, ending up looking a little too
much like sloppy paint instead of a cool effect, but your mileage may
vary. Also, don't forget that each of these is done to order, so every
one is slightly unique.

Fun Factor - ****
Masters
of the Universe characters are all about conflict - that's what made
them such great action figures. But what's conflict without weapons?
Somebody starts spouting off about conflict resolution methods, like
listening to each other and telling each other how you feel...and the
good guy always ends up screwed.

That's not what we want for
He-man, or even Skeletor for that matter. These weapons and shields are
great fun, and add quite a bit of play value to figures that are
already great toys.

Value - **
While I love these guys, they aren't cheap. At $10 each, you'll be
picking and choosing which ones fit best with your plans, rather than
buying them all willy nilly.

But while it might seem that a
ten spot is a lot for an accessory, don't forget that these are hand
made, cast and painted to order. There aren't tens of thousands of
these being produced, and you'll have a fairly unique and extremely
well made weapon or shield for your MOTUC figure that most other
collectors will not.

Things to Watch Out For -
These are very hard plastic, but don't seem too brittle, so you
shouldn't have much trouble with them. However, they are harder than
the fingers and thumbs of the hands of your usual MOTUC figure, so take
some care popping them in. Nobody wants to lose a thumb.

Overall - ****
If you're a MOTUC collector looking for something to make your figures
stand out, you owe it to yourself to check these out. Yes, the price is
a bit high, but considering the quality and the made-to-order nature,
it's not that far out of line.

While
you're at it, take the time to check out some of the other goodies,
especially the axes. Spymonkey Creations is doing a great job providing
some much needed extras that can be used not just for the MOTUC line,
but other fantasy series as well.